Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats’ lightning rod

Whenever Democrats need to distract attention away from their vulnerable members for their questionable votes, people can count on Nancy Pelosi providing that distraction. When Pelosi ripped up her copy of President Trump’s SOTU Address, she did it to distract attention away from her vulnerable freshmen.

Her freshmen promised to fix health care. Freshman Democrats failed that test miserably. Democrat freshmen promised to lower prescription drug prices. Democrats failed on that, too. Democrat freshmen told voters that they didn’t Pelosi for Speaker. Some of those freshmen voted for Pelosi to be Speaker. Freshmen Democrats that didn’t vote for Pelosi for Speaker voted to initiate the impeachment inquiry. These freshmen Democrats voted for both articles of impeachment, too.

Now, Pelosi has written a dishonest op-ed that the Washington Post has published. In the op-ed, Pelosi wrote “President Trump abused the power of his office to pressure a foreign power to help him cheat in an American election.” It’s impossible to know whether President Trump pressured “a foreign power to help him cheat in an American election” since that election is 9+ months away. Is Pelosi clairvoyant? Or is she just lying again? I suspect it’s the latter.

Further, it’s virtually impossible for presidents to abuse their power in setting foreign policy. Since we’ve proven that President Trump didn’t “pressure a foreign power to help him cheat in an American election”, then the only matter on the table is setting US foreign policy. The first sentence in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution emphatically states that “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” This is important to note because of something Jeff Dunetz wrote in this post explaining why Lt. Col. Vindman was reassigned out of the NSC. (Make sure you read Jeff’s entire article. It’s the type of information you won’t get from CNN, MSDNC or other MSM outlets.) Here’s Lt. Col. Vindman’s opening statement to the HPSCI:

I had just finished making the point that supporting Ukraine was essential because it was ground zero in our geopolitical competition with Russia. I was surprised when Vindman responded to my point. He stated that it was the position of the NSC that our relationship with Ukraine should be kept separate from our geopolitical competition with Russia. My blunt response was, “How in the world is that even possible?“

It’s clear that Lt. Col. Vindman thought that the NSC, not President Trump, was in charge of setting foreign policy. It’s apparent because of testimony he gave to the House Intel Committee:

Vindman testified that an “alternative narrative” pushed by the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was “inconsistent with the consensus views of the” relevant federal agencies and was “undermining the consensus policy.”

Like Pelosi, Lt. Col. Vindman thinks that President Trump doesn’t set US foreign policy. The Constitution that Pelosi intermittently expresses praise for disagrees. The Lt. Col. Vindmans of the world serve the president to implement his foreign policy. But I digress.

I admit that I paid a ton of attention to Pelosi’s stunt. I don’t regret it, though, because there’s plenty of time to punish freshmen Democrats for voting “to initiate the impeachment inquiry and voting for both articles of impeachment.” We have 9+ months left to make the case for firing Pelosi’s Democrats. Let’s make the most of that time.